Fairy Tales
by Steph-Schell
Summary: A little girl gets a story on a snowy evening


"You owe me a story," the girl said.

"That's true," he agreed, kneeling down in front of her in the snow. "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

"Oh yes please."

"Once upon a time," he began. "There lived a Prince. But he was not a True Prince because his mother was not the queen. His father, the king, had lain with one of his serving maids to produce the prince. However, the king loved the boy so much; he made him a prince away. The queen was very upset by this. She wanted her children to inherit the throne rather than a child born out of wedlock.

"So the queen contacted a powerful sorceress. The sorceress entranced the Prince and placed an evil curse on him. He was doomed to cling to the shadows for eternity, surviving only by drinking the blood of the living. In short, he would become a monster. But there was still hope. Every curse can be broken. For the Prince to break his curse he would need to find a maiden who was pure and strong and lovely inside and out. Only she would be able to deliver him from the horror that was his life now.

"the Prince immediately set out to find this woman. He searched high and low for a very long time. But the days turned to months and the months to years. Soon whole centuries began to slip away under his watch. The Prince fell into a deep melancholy."

The little girl wrinkled her nose. "What does that mean?"

"It means he was very sad."

"Oh. Go on."

"So the Prince began to travel the realms. He threw himself into the other past times in hopes that it would turn his thoughts away from his situation. It was truly hopeless to think that he would one day be able to break his curse and so it was best not to dwell on it. The Prince achieved a sort of inner peace this way though the thought of his curse was never far from his mind.

"It came to pass one night that the Prince was crossing a park and ended up saving a Warrior Maiden from a pack of evil demons."

"All demons are evil," the girl cut in.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Excuse me, who is telling this story?"

"You are."

"Let's keep it that way. Now, where were we? Oh, yes. The Prince looked at the Warrior Maiden and thought 'At long last it is she. She will break me from my curse. I will soon be at peace'. And it was true that when you looked at the Warrior Maiden she was the embodiment of a suitable mate for the Prince. He began to throw all his strength into pursuing her.

"No matter how he lavished attention on her, the Warrior Maiden remained aloof to his attentions. This angered the Prince as he had labored throughout the centuries to simply find her. He was certain it was the Soldier who also sought the Warrior Maiden's hand that was the one thwarting the Prince at every turn. The Prince endeavored to find new ways of wooing the Warrior Maiden.

"In the shadow of the Warrior Maiden lived a young handmaid. She was not as draped in glory as her mistress but she was still lively, pleasant and eager to help. Her greatest dream was to be as great as her mistress. The Prince approached the handmaid in the hopes that she could give him an edge in winning the Warrior Maiden for his own. The handmaid readily agreed as she wanted only happiness for those around her.

"The Prince often went to see the handmaid but nothing they could concoct would melt the Warrior Maiden's icy exterior. But the handmaid remained ever cheerful that they would find some way to unite the two star crossed lovers. Though it could often be hard to remain cheerful when the Prince was complaining.

"The Prince was down there so often that it became common place for the two of them to talk of other subjects besides the Prince's attraction to the Warrior Maiden. The Prince found himself growing fond of the handmaid in new ways. He felt himself wanting to whisk her away to a safe place and protect her from all danger, despite the fact that it was well known that she wanted to be a warrior like her mistress. The Prince found hot anger running through him when the handmaid spoke of her potential suitors. The Prince discouraged her from all of them even knowing that many of them would make a good match for her.

"One day the handmaid asked the Prince if he withdrawn his suit for the Warrior Maiden. 'What would make you ask that?' the Prince wondered.

"The handmaid shrugged. 'It's been so long since you've spoken of winning her hand I simply assumed you had forfeited.'

"And the Prince realized she was right. It had been many months since he had even thought of his task of wooing the Warrior Maiden. He had been so caught up in the handmaid that he had not even noticed his original plans falling by the wayside. And it was in that moment that the Prince got his first look at the handmaid. And he realize that she was the woman he had been waiting centuries for. She was everything he had hope for in his mate and so much more. The Prince was overwhelmed by the depths of his feelings and when the handmaid asked what was wrong, he could say nothing. He could kiss her in the hopes that she would understand that way.

"The handmaid was confused by the Prince's sudden affection towards her. She protested that he must not be feeling well and offered to fetch a physican. The Prince stopped her. He insisted that his affections were not sudden. Instead it was his understanding of them that had taken them both by surprise. The Prince realized that he had been in love with the handmaid for a very long time without even knowing it. He knelt there on the dirty floor of her chamber and proposed marriage. The handmaid was overwhelmed but quickly said yes. The kingdom celebrated as never before at their wedding."

"But wait, daddy. Did the Prince become human again?"

"In a sense." He smiled at his little girl. "You see, the Prince realized that the handmaid had broken his curse because she had never seen him as a monster in the first place. She knew intrinsically—that means deep in her heart—that there was no difference between him and any other man. And the Prince realized he hadn't ever really lost his humanity at all." He tweaked her nose. "And do you know what the best part of all is about this story?"

Clarice shook her head. "What's that?"

Henry looked at Coreen who sat proudly by their daughter like the queen he had always known she was. "You tell her," he insisted.

"The best part," Coreen said, "is that it's all absolutely true." She smiled at Henry. "Isn't that right, my Prince?"

"Exactly, my beautiful handmaid."


End file.
